I currently use Ultramarine KDE Plasma, which is a very nicely configured Fedora 43 based distro.
I’m evaluating switching to Bazzite. Simple test: Try to add my wireless Canon printer - works. Try to add my wireless Canon scanner - oops! No scanner software.
Normally I would sudo dnf in skanlite and continue with my day.
On Bazzite, I’m guessing I will sudo rpm-ostree install skanlite ?
But wait, doesn’t this involve the dreaded - dun duh daaa - ‘layering’? Have I just ruined the precious immutability??
Is it generally OK to add in fedora packages or not??
Confused …
Doing anything with rpm-ostree is considered a last resort.
Ideally there’s a flatpak you can grab, (there is). If not, then you’re supposed to run it in a distrobox and export the app.
Thank you very much Botzo. I finally wrapped my head around this. Flatpak first, then spin up a container of an operating system for one lousy app and only use ostree as last resort. I had it backwards after decades of doing it the other way lol.
Take a look at the difference in resource usage would you:
Skanlite Rpm installed size - 3mb
Skanlite Flatpak installed size - 16mb (plus Flatpak run time files etc)
Not even gonna guess how much a container of Fedora 43 in Distrobox just for one 3mb application is going to consume lol.
For me, the voracious storage consumption is something to stop and consider …